Shinsedai Cinema Festival brings upcoming Japanese films to Toronto

With so many films available worldwide, it’s easy to pigeonhole what kind of cinema comes from what country, and typically, when people discuss Japanese cinema, they’re talking about samurais, horror, or anime. The Shinsedai Cinema Festival, put on by the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, is working to broaden North America’s understanding and appreciation of Japanese film. “Shinsedai” means “new generation,” and the festival’s programming focuses on new movies being made by independent Japanese filmmakers. The Post’s Angela Hickman sat down with James Heron, the executive director of the JCCC and the film festival (although he leaves the programming to Chris MaGee and Jasper Sharp) to talk about Japan’s new wave of filmmakers.

Q:This is the third year for the festival — how has it progressed?A: I think our selection of films each year gets better. The first year, you’d say “Shinsedai” and nobody would know what you were talking about, but I think the festival is getting a little more of a reputation. One of the ways Japanese filmmakers can make a name for themselves is to go to international festivals, and often that sort of recognition is what will help to bring them recognition back home. So now that we’re getting to become more known among the independent Japanese film community, people are certainly stepping forward more, so we have a richer variety of films to choose from.

Q: There are some genres of Japanese films that have a niche following, though. How does Shinsedai handle that?A: The whole film program at the centre is an attempt to find the big gap that exists between the two extremes of Japanese films that I think most Canadians see. There’s lots of great programming bodies here that do the classics — the Ozus and the Kurosawas and such — and again there’s lots of places you can see the anime or the J-horror, so the various genre films. But the films that the Japanese go to see don’t get seen here that often, so our feeling is that through our regular film program and through the Shinsedai we’re trying to cover the rest of this broad spectrum of Japanese film. Japan’s one of the biggest filmmaking countries in the world. So we look at the films that the Japanese public enjoy or are recognized by the Japanese Academy Awards.

Q:We sometimes conflate independent and foreign films — how independent are these films?A: How a lot of independent Japanese filmmakers come to make their films — they’re the ones who are outside the studio system — they come through “pink films,” sort of Japanese soft-core porn. So you have directors like [Yojiro Takita] the director of Departures, he started off making soft-core films and this is sort of a training ground for filmmakers who go on to make a career as filmmakers. I think one of the great films we’ve shown at this centre was the centrepiece film of last year’s Shinsedai, [Confessions of a Dog] by a director called Gen Takahashi. It’s a film that was banned in Japan because it was very powerful but very critical of police corruption. It was a big hit.

Q:It’s been a hard year for Japan. Do you think that will affect the films we see coming out of the country in the next little while?A: The tsunami and earthquake disaster as well as the economic disaster has made fundin difficult for independent filmmakers. But, having said that, there’s been no really noticeable downturn in the film industry. Sometimes people go to see movies when the going gets tough; they’re looking for escape. So it make have affected funding, it may have shut some cinemas down, but I don’t think in any way it’s changed people’s appetite for film.

James Heron’s festival must-see films:

Hospitalité (Canadian premiere): showing July 21 at 8 p.m. – Heron describes this film as a “quirky comedy” about xenophopia in Japan.

Shirome (Canadian premiere): showing July 22 at 7 p.m. – a different take on Japanese horror films that combines a haunted house, a girl band, and documentary-style filmmaking.

Wandering Home (Canadian premiere): showing July 23 at 8 p.m. – Shinsedai’s centerpiece film about a struggling alcoholic (it also stars Tadanobu Asano, one of Japan’s biggest movie stars).

Sawako Decides (Toronto premiere): showing July 24 at 7 p.m. – the closing film of the festival is another “quirky comedy,” this time about a young woman coming of age.